A key focus of this blog is the history of Jacksons in Ireland. I am specially curious about those who may be related to Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915). His life is key to understanding how a dozen or so young men, sons of Irish tenant farmers, shaped the future of international banking in the Far East in the late 1800s. I also use this blog as a place for playful posts: book and restaurant reviews, recipes, and events in my life. WARNING: Note the date of each post. Some may be outdated.

Pages

Search This Blog

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862-1956)

Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862-1956)

Ho Tung
was one of Sir
Thomas Jackson’s cherished friends. After TJ’s death, he continued to stay in touch with Thomas’ eldest son, Sir
Thomas Dare Jackson. There is more than one photo of Ho Tung in the various
archives in the homes of my extended family in Ireland and England. Also, in
the HSBC archives in London, there is a handwritten timeline of TJ’s life (the first
Sir Thomas) that Ho Tung compiled to assist various researchers in writing the
history of HSBC.

Not surprisingly, it was Ho Tung who presented an address to
Thomas Jackson on behalf of the Chinese Community, when TJ was leaving Hong
Kong, thanking him for ... fostering the
good works of all classes of charitable and religious institutions in Hong Kong,
and without discrimination, your private munificence ...” He also mentioned
the very cordial relations that ever
existed between yourself and the Chinese merchants and traders of Hong Kong.

The early life of Ho Tung was not so uncommon in the early
days of Hong Kong. His father was a
merchant, Charles Henry Maurice Bosman, of Dutch and Jewish ancestry. His
mother (surname Sze and given name probably Tai) had been sold by her family.
She arrived in Hong Kong in 1855 and became Bosman’s long-term mistress,
bearing him several children.

A couple of decades younger than Thomas Jackson, but doing
business with him on a regular basis, Ho Tung had started out as a comprador
brokering deals on behalf of merchants and bankers such as John Bell-Irving of
Jardines, and Paul Chater of Chater & Mody – both of whom served on the
board of HSBC when Jackson was the manager. By the time Ho Tung retired in 1900
as Jardine’s chief comprador, he was worth more than $2,000,000 in cash alone.

He was also active in public life. In 1895, he spoke out
against legislation that discriminated against non-Europeans. In 1898 he chaired
the Tung Wah Hospital board. In 1915, as part of his philanthropic activities,
he made a substantial donation to the University of Hong Kong He also donated
$50,000 to buy airplanes and ambulances to assist the British cause in WWI, and
as a result of such actions, he received his first knighthood.

On the political front, he tried to bridge divides and hosted
meetings with numerous Chinese political reformers at Idlewood, one of his several Hong Kong houses. In 1922, he brought rival Chinese war lords together in Hong Kong in
an attempt to broker peace, not that he succeeded. As a result of actions such
as this, and much more, he was awarded a 2nd knighthood in 1855.

His first wife was Margaret Mak, daughter of Hector MacLean’s
mistress (Maclean was a Jardine’s agent). Clara Ching-yung, his second but ‘equal’ wife, was a cousin of
his 1st wife. Together, he
and Clara had three sons and seven daughters. He also had a daughter with his
concubine, Chau Yee-man. It would be surprising if these concurrent
relationships didn’t result in at least some domestic complications. In 1906, after successfully gaining an
exemption from the Peak Reservation Ordinance which reserved The Peak for
Europeans, he bought three houses on The Peak to accommodate his ever-expanding
and complex family,

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Hong Kong, I revisited
much of this history and was finally able to put two and two together. For some
time, I had been perplexed by a photo that included an elderly man conversing with
Ho Tung. The other man had looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. It turned
out that he was none other than George Bernard Shaw. Not only that, but Shaw –
who was a distant cousin of Governor Lugard’s wife Dame Flora Louise Shaw - had
previously visited Ho Tung at his home in Hong Kong in 1933. SEE: Financial
Times article.

NOTE: In this photo, Ho Tung was
88 years old and Shaw was 94.

Here is the letter that Ho Tung sent to TJ’s son, Sir Thomas Dare Jackson, with
the photos. It was this that made me realize who the two men were. The
reference to Ayot, St Lawrence refers to the place where Shaw lived from
1906 until his death in November 1950 . Shaw died 8 months after the photo was
taken.

SOURCES: There is a splendid
biography of Ho Tung, which includes much more than what I have mentioned here,
in the Dictionary
of Hong Kong Biography. There are also a number of interesting
references in Hong
Kong in Chinese History: Community and Social Unrest in the British Colony,
1842-1913. The quotes from the Chinese Address to Thomas Jackson come
from Frank H. H. King, The Hongkong Bank
in Late Imperial China 1864-1902. p. 567GRATITUDE: The Bowman-Vaughan
family often deserves special mention for their generosity in assisting me with
my research, but particularly so in this case. Annabel shared these photos as
well as the letter with me, and her sister Venetia photographed them much
better than I could have. Their brother Tommy hosts me whenever I visit London –
and years ago even went to the trouble to set up a guest suite for me. Their
sister Juliet has also hosted me when I have been in the western part of Ireland.
Great-grandchildren of Sir Thomas Jackson, they have all inherited his
generosity of spirit and are all significant contributors to this story.

2 comments:

What intrigues me is that he is some kind of family or stepfather of Grace Lee, the mother of the famous martial artist Bruce Lee. Many times you heard that her father was German. Deutsch and Dutch were often misunderstood in English speaking countries. It is also said that her mother was Russian Eurasian. Maybe you have more information on this subject.

About Me

Author And Researcher. I am currently writing a book on the life of Sir Thomas Jackson. He was the son of tenant farmers, born just before the Famine in South Armagh, who was knighted because he not only lead HSBC into the 20th Century, but was also responsible for assisting with the funding of much of the economic development in China & Japan in the late 1800s. My first published book was "Some Become Flowers: Living with Dying at Home".